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13th Mar 2018

Conor McGregor’s movement coach is officially training for his MMA debut

Touch butt in the cage

Darragh Murphy

This will be interesting.

Ido Portal’s usefulness as a coach for mixed martial artists has been debated by fans for years but Conor McGregor has worked with him and there’s no denying that McGregor is one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world.

Portal has joined up with the Irishman’s recent fight camps and has been tasked with perfecting McGregor’s movement in the build-up to bouts against Jose Aldo, Nate Diaz and Eddie Alvarez.

Portal’s methods have been questioned by cynics in the past, with Diaz’s comments on the Israeli movement expert going down in trash-talk lore.

“You’re playing touch-butt with that dork in the park with the pony tail.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/BHC-PYDBqKZ/?utm_source=ig_embed

McGregor’s work with Portal has inspired other top-level fighters, such as Lando Vannata, to enlist the help of the movement coach in preparation for UFC contests and Portal must have caught the bug as he is in the process of training for his first MMA outing.

https://twitter.com/ido_portal_/status/973165768807473152?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fmiddleeasy.com%2Fmma-news%2Fbreaking-conors-movement-coach-ido-portal-training-first-mma-fight%2F

It’s unlikely that the UFC will afford Portal the opportunity to launch his fighting career under their banner but stranger things have happened as they gave CM Punk a shot at 0-0 and there should be no underestimating the matchless pull that McGregor has with the company.

Expect sales of pool noodles to skyrocket with a victory for everybody’s favourite movement coach, wherever it takes place.